Optical active waveguide in Er³⁺-Yb³⁺ codoped lithium silicate glass writtten with near-IR femtosecond laser pulses

We present for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, active waveguide device and array in Er³⁺-Yb³⁺ codoped lithium silicate glass directly written by near-IR femtosecond laser pulses. We show that in Er³⁺-Yb³⁺ codoped lithium silicate cylinder waveguide of diameter 4um is produced by use of a microscope objective with a numerical aperture of NA=0.1 and laser pulse of 400fs duration with a energy of 3 μ J generated by a Ti:sapphire amplifier. The sample could be translated parallel to the laser beam axis by a computer-controlled three-dimensional translation stage. We analyze its guided wave characterization. This one-step process provides a simple and flexible method for the fabrication of integrated optics components.